


The Beginning is the End is the Beginning

by edema_ruh



Series: Delivered from the Blast [1]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, Arguing, Developing Relationship, Fighting, Hurt/Comfort, Superheroes, Superpowers, Violence, basically this is one ordinary superhero au, except it will have a lot of angst because that's what I DO, les amis are superheroes and form a team to fight crime, their powers will probably be based on superheroes from marvel comics and DC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-03-31
Packaged: 2018-05-30 05:54:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6411508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edema_ruh/pseuds/edema_ruh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Amis protest against a company that makes experiments using unorthodox materials. An accident occurs, and everything changes forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Beginning is the End is the Beginning

To nobody's surprise, Grantaire was late. 

It was usual for him to get late to the Amis' protests, specially since this was the third one against BL Industries on that month. Except this time he was late because his jerk of a boss wouldn’t let him get out of work on time.  

There were already three unread texts on his phone from Joly, another two from Combeferre. Grantaire rushed to the bus stop as fast as he could, knowing he was an hour late to the protest. As soon as he got inside the vehicle, he pulled his phone out of his pocket, opening the texts. 

 **From: Joly (15:17) R the protest will start in ten minutes, are you coming?**  

 **From: Joly (15:26) R everyone is ready where are you?**  

 **From:** **Combeferre** **(15:28) You coming to the protest?**  

 **From:** **Combeferre** **(15:31) Don't bother coming up the stage,** **Enjolras** **already started speaking. If you are coming at all, stay on the crowd**  

 **From: Joly (16:10) R DON'T SHOW UP EVERYTHING IS GOING TO HELL STAY HOME WE MAY NEED TO USE UR PLACE**  

Grantaire frowned, heart rate increasing. It was 16:26 now. He quickly dialed Joly's number, tapping his foot on the floor anxiously as he waited for his friend to pick up. 

Suddenly the sound of police sirens and yelling filled his ear, as Joly yelled "Hello!" Very loudly on the other end of the call. Grantaire immediately let out a sigh of relief, at least his friend was alive. 

"Joly! I'm on my way, what's happening?" Grantaire asked, desperately. 

"Don't!", Joly yelled, followed by a loud crash that sounded like a window being smashed. "Don't come here, it's all gone to hell, ouch! Watch out!" The young doctor told someone. "A radical group disrupted the rally and invaded BL, they're breaking everything, the police showed up and is, fuck! Are you okay Bossuet? They are arresting everyone they see and we're trying to get away!" 

"What about Enjolras?" Grantaire couldn’t help but to ask. "Is he ok?" 

"I haven't seen him since the stage collapsed", Joly replied. Grantaire's heart nearly stopped. "I tried to reach him but the police started shooting rubber bullets at everyone, I had to get away, I'm sorry R". 

"Don't be. I just arrived, where are you?" Grantaire asked, hopping off the bus and running his way to the street where BL's head facility was located. The smell of smoke and dust was already filling the air, and what looked like a battlefield appeared in front of his eyes as he turned on a corner. A police force was trying to control the rioters, most of them wearing cloths over their faces and throwing rocks and pieces of wood at the police. A few people who probably had nothing to do with the commotion were trying to get away, stumbling over the remaining of the stage and coughing. 

"We're at an ally right now, but there's no way out. If we get out of here we'll be arrested or shot", Joly answered, panting. "R, don't worry about Enjolras, the last I saw him he was conscious. The worst that could happen is he gets arrested, we can bail him out after". 

"No", Grantaire said, taking cover behind a tree so the police didn’t see him. "No, if he was on the stage when it collapsed he must be hurt. I need to help him. Sorry, gotta go", Grantaire hung up, ignoring Joly's plead of "Grantaire, wait!". He put his phone away and ran towards the wreckage of the stage, thankful that the police was too distracted fighting the rioters to notice his presence. 

"Enjolras", he called, searching though the broken wood and dust. "Enjolras, can you hear me?" 

A muffled grunt came from somewhere to his right, and Grantaire dug his way through the wood until he spotted dusty blond curls. 

"Oh my god, Enjolras", Grantaire whispered, helping Enjolras to sit into an upright position and holding the man's face between his hands. There was a cut on Enjolras' forehead, red blood smeared on the left side of his face, contrasting with the dust on the right side. "Are you hurt?" 

"Grantaire?" The man asked, confused. "What are you...", Enjolras coughed, "doing here?" 

"I came to rescue you, you dipshit". Grantaire said, passing Enjolras' arm around his shoulder and standing up, taking most of the man's weight. He stumbled, Enjolras groaning beside him, and started to walk away from the scene as fast as he could – which was not very fast. "We need to get out of here. Is anyone else hurt or stuck?" 

"No", Enjolras slurred. He seemed to be only half conscious. Probably has a concussion, Grantaire thought. 

"Then let's go", Grantaire urged Enjolras to move faster. "Don't worry Apollo, I've got you". 

"You two, stop right there!" A male voice behind them said. Grantaire stopped on his tracks, slowly helping Enjolras sit down on the floor without injuring the man further. He slowly turned around to see a police man pointing a gun at him, his hands trembling. "Keep your hands where I can see them. You two are under arrest". 

"He needs medical attention", Grantaire said, pointing at Enjolras with his head nervously. 

"A lot of people do son", the cop said, approaching him. "Maybe if you kids didn’t start this goddamn riot there wouldn’t be so many people in need of medical attention". 

"We didn’t start anything", Grantaire protested, as the man grabbed handcuffs and got ready to restrain him. Enjolras had fallen and was now lying down on the floor, instead of sitting. Grantaire could see the blood still leaking from his wound. He did the only thing he could do. 

He punched the police man right on the face before he could put the handcuffs around his wrists. 

The man stumbled backwards, disoriented, and automatically reached for his gun. Grantaire punched him again, harder this time, and the man fell back, knocked out. 

Thank god for the boxing classes he took. 

He quickly grabbed Enjolras, not bothering to try to wake him up and throwing the man's body over his shoulder. He tried to run, despite the extra weight, but the little scene he had made with the cop called people's attention, and suddenly there were even more police men after him. Grantaire tried to find an escape route, but it was too late. They had surrounded him. 

"Hands up!" One of the police men yelled. Grantaire put Enjolras down, hand steady on his waist to keep him on his feet, and the blond man groaned. 

"Grantaire..." He was trying to say, eyes unfocused. 

"I'm right here", Grantaire reassured, pulling Enjolras closer. "I'm not leaving you". 

Grantaire knew there was no way out of this. He and Enjolras were going to jail. Well, at least now Enjolras wouldn’t have to be alone on a cold jail cell, Grantaire would be there to distract him with his annoying company. He was halfway through lifting his hands up the air, when the loudest sound Grantaire had ever heard filled his ears. 

He had only enough time to try and put Enjolras behind him to protect the man from the worst of the explosion as the air around them dislodged and sent the pair flying meters from where they had been standing. Glass, dust and shrapnel hit them both, and Grantaire's head collided with cement harshly enough to make him see stars.  

He opened his eyes, blinking sluggishly and tried to prop himself up on his elbows, but was too weak to do so. Instead, Grantaire looked around through his hazy vision, dust filling his lungs and making him cough, sending a sharp stabbing sensation to his ribs. He could see what once had been the BL building, now only wreckage, fire and smoke burning his eyesight, the building and most things around it completely destroyed, and he could see Enjolras right beside him, another cut on his forehead and blue eyes open, staring at him without seeing. 

Grantaire found the strengh to get up at this sight, crawling his way to Enjolras' limp body. He didn’t know when he had started to scream, because there was a loud ring on his ears and he couldn’t hear his own voice. He knew there were tears in his eyes and fear on his heart as he shook Enjolras with force, trying to somehow urge life to the man's dead body. Enjolras' head was thrown back, eyes still open and sightless, mouth slightly ajar by the force of Grantaire's shakes, arms limp and thrown uselessly beside him. 

"Enjolras, please!" Grantaire was screaming, sobbing, shaking the man with all his might, but everything seemed to move in slow motion. "Wake up!", Grantaire screamed. "Wake up!" 

There were steps rushing towards him and a hand on his shoulder but Grantaire didn’t let go. A voice was talking to him but everything felt too dreamlike and unreal for him to focus on it. All he could focus on was Enjolras, Enjolras lifeless on his grasp. Grantaire screamed again, this time from anger and grief and despair, hands he didn’t recognize pulling him away from Enjolras despite his weak struggle. Grantaire let his body fall back against the concrete and sobbed, Joly's face coming into his line of sight. He couldn’t understand what his friend was saying as a wave of dizziness and tiredness overcame him and he passed out on the doctor's arms. 

- 

They had no idea of what happened. 

It was commonly known that the new tests that BL was running had risen a lot of controversial opinions, but as soon as Les Amis found out that they were testing on dark matter and on new potential weapons in the middle of a highly populated city, they had to take it to the streets. The three previous protests had done nothing to stop BL's ambitions, but the fourth one had managed to be even worse. People who didn’t care about their cause, people who just wanted to have some fun on the cost of others started to disrupt the rally, breaking windows, provoking the police. It all went to hell when a group decided to invade the BL building, drawing the police force and managing to get themselves into a gun fight that ended up with a reactor being hit and exploding. The only problem was the explosion resulted on the lower levels of the building being also affected, and that was where all of BL's secret stuff was being kept. The chain reaction resulted on several other explosions that absolutely destroyed the building and everything on a 900 feet ratio. Grantaire was lucky he had managed to get away right before everything happened. 

Several people died and about a hundred got injured, Grantaire being one of them. The police made sure to keep track of every person taken in to the hospital on that day, looking for possible suspects and wanting to take in anyone who could be slightly involved on the incident. That was precisely the reason why Joly decided to take the unconscious Grantaire to his house instead. 

They were all devastated by Enjolras' death. Courfeyrac and Jehan had sobbed all the way back to Joly and Bossuet's house, Combeferre shedding silent tears as he tried to comfort them. All the amis were crying, full of grief and regret, even Éponine, who was trying to hold Grantaire's unconscious form in a comfortable position. As they arrived on the apartment, Joly instructed Bahorel and Combeferre to put Enjolras' body on his own bed, as he tended to his wounded friends. They had all been hit by the explosion after all. 

It wasn’t until Grantaire's body began to convulse madly and a terrifying scream came from inside the bedroom that Joly realized something was wrong. Looking up from where he was kneeling on the floor, he saw Bossuet's body shaking hard and Éponine doubling over as she vomited on the floor. Bahorel had fallen to the ground and Feuilly was trying to help him. Joly got to his feet and burst into his bedroom.  

A terrified Jehan was fallen on the floor, protecting his head with both arms and eyes shut tight. Courfeyrac looked like he wanted to enter the wall from the way he was leaning against it, looking at the bed with horror. Joly followed his line of sight and almost fell to his knees.  

Enjolras was sitting on the bed, eyes empty and looking at nowhere, chest raising and falling with each breath. He was alive. 

Joly approached him, eyes wide, hand outstretched reaching for Enjolras shoulder.  

"E-Enjolras?" He called, hesitant. The blond leader looked up at him. 

A sharp pain was sent across Joly's skull as soon as Enjolras' eyes contacted with his, so intense and torturing he fell to his knees beside the bed, holding his head with both hands and letting out a scream. Tears flooded his eyes as the pain persisted, and just as he thought his skull was being split open it stopped. Joly fell back, not able to keep himself up anymore. He looked to the bed, wary. 

Enjolras was blinking, eyes finally focusing, and looking around in confusion. Firstly he stared at his own hands, terrified, and then acknowledged Courfeyrac and Jehan's presence. He finally looked down at Joly, who flinched at the contact with the leader's eyes, which made Enjolras frown. 

"Joly...", he said, voice hoarse. "W-what happened?" 

"I...", Joly said, swallowing dry. "I have no idea". 

- 

When Grantaire woke up, all his friends were surrounding him with weird looks on their faces. 

It took him some time to fully regain his senses and remember what had happened, but as soon as he did his expression dropped and his eyes filled with tears. 

"Enjolras", he muttered, heart broken, covering his face with his hands. Enjolras had died. Grantaire had promised he'd protect him but Enjolras was dead. He could literally feel his heart shatter in a million pieces. Now he'd never be able to tell Enjolras how much he loved him. 

"I'm right here", Enjolras said, from somewhere behind him. Grantaire startled, sitting up so quickly he felt dizzy. 

"Whoa, easy", Joly held him, helping him sit properly. Grantaire blinked several times, looking up at Enjolras, who was standing behind the couch. Standing. Breathing. Alive. 

"What... how...?" Grantaire asked, confused, as Joly checked his pupils with a little flashlight. "What happened?" 

"Calm down", Joly instructed, sitting beside Grantaire. "Guys, could you give us some space?", he asked, as the amis showed no sign that they would move. They all exchanged looks, hesitating before making their way out of the room. Only Enjolras stayed. 

"What the hell happened, Joly?" Grantaire asked. 

"You've been unconscious for nearly two days, R", Joly started, taking his friend's hand. "The explosion, it... it did something to us". 

"What... what do you mean?" Grantaire asked, still looking at Enjolras, who was staring down at him with a weird look. 

"It gave us... abilities", Joly explained. "That's why Enjolras is... still alive. It affected all of us, gave us some sort of... super powers". 

Grantaire let out a scoff and a laugh, finally looking at Joly. His friend was as serious as he had ever seen him. 

"You can't be serious", Grantaire laughed. "Like... comic book super powers? We both know that's impossible". 

Joly sighed, lowering his head. 

"See, I told you he wouldn’t believe it", he said. "Go call Bossuet, please". Enjolras nodded and exited the room, coming back a few seconds after. Grantaire turned his head, blinked his eyes and suddenly Bossuet was standing right in front of him. 

"What the...?" Grantaire exclaimed. "How did you...?" 

Before he could finish the sentence, Bossuet was already sitting beside him on the other side of the couch. Then in a blink of an eye he was on the other side of the room. 

"Bossuet got super speed", Joly explained. Grantaire stared at him, terrified. 

"How is that even possible?" 

"We don’t know for sure yet", Joly said. "It appears that BL was hiding more than the dark matter on their facilities. Whatever they had on that building affected us on the explosion. Not only us, but whoever was near. We don’t even know how many yet". 

"Does the government know about this?" 

"We don't think so", Enjolras replied. "No one has mentioned it yet. It's only been two days". 

"What's _your_ super power?" Grantaire asked, frowning at Enjolras. 

"So far I have telepathic powers that allow me to read minds, control people and send skull splitting headaches when I make eye contact with someone". 

"Read... minds?" Grantaire asked, trying to keep the horror from his voice. Enjolras looked uncomfortable. 

"I try my best not to. It's impolite". 

"Right...", Grantaire said, trying to think of anything other than his crush on Enjolras. "What about you, Joly?" 

"I... I don't know", Joly said. "Nothing happened yet. Maybe they'll take longer to manifest, or they won't manifest at all. We can't be sure". 

"So everyone here has super powers?" Grantaire asked, receiving a nod from all three of them. "And now what? What are we supposed to do with this?" 

"Well, fight crime and injustice, obviously", Enjolras immediately responded. 

"Why did I even ask", Grantaire muttered, getting up from the couch. "You've had your abilities for two days, Enjolras, I doubt you're in full control of them". 

"I didn’t mean right now", Enjolras rolled his eyes. "But after we're trained and controlled enough, we should use our abilities to do good". 

"So what you're saying is that you want to turn us into the Justice League", Grantaire mocked. 

"It's better than having these powers and doing nothing to help those in need", Enjolras refuted. 

"How come you're always so childish?" Grantaire raised his voice, angry. "You _died_ right in front of me on that protest, imagine what kind of danger you'd be throwing yourself into if you ran across the streets trying to play vigilante!" 

"Guys, calm down", Joly said, putting himself between the two men. 

"If I am childish, you are selfish and a coward. You gained abilities that could help people and stop evil but instead you want to do what? Hide away in a corner with your booze?", Enjolras practically snarled. 

"I don’t even know if I have abilities! Maybe I don’t! And then what? I'm supposed to sit down and watch my friends get themselves killed because they think they can change human nature? God, I thought this protest shit was bad enough, but now I can see you really have a death wish". 

"I will not sit idly doing nothing when I could use my abilities to do good!" 

"And what good will your abilities do, Enjolras?" Grantaire threw his hands on the air, exasperated. "Do you expect to go around on the street _mind controlling_ people to stop doing what they're doing? And here I thought you were a big defender of free will". 

"Oh my god, why are you so _stubborn_?" Enjolras yelled, and a burning pain was sent through Grantaire's head, making the man fall to the ground instantly. The pain was gone just as suddenly as it appeared, but it was intense enough to send tears to Grantaire's eyes. He looked up to see Enjolras staring at him in horror, looking incredibly guilty.  

"I guess this just proves my point", Grantaire muttered weakly, ignoring Joly fussing beside him. 

"I'm- I...", Enjolras stuttered. "Grantaire, I'm really sorry. I didn’t mean to-" 

"Yeah, I know", Grantaire interrupted, getting to his feet with Joly's aid. "It's ok". 

Enjolras stared at him, still looking like he had just kicked a blind puppy. He suddenly turned on his heels and exited the room without another word. 

"Why can't you two just behave for once in your lives", Joly was muttering. 

"I won't let him kill himself, Joly", Grantaire threw himself on the couch. 

"Oh my god, I'm not going to argue with you too", Joly said.  

"Fine", Grantaire said, sinking further into the couch. Bossuet was again beside him in a blink of an eye. 

"So", the man said, as Joly went out to let everyone know that it was ok to go back inside. "What do you think your abilities are?" 

"Honestly? I have no idea". 

"Well", Bossuet said, a devious smirk appearing on his face just as Bahorel and Feuilly entered the room. "Why don't we find out then?"

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are always appreciated, so is constructive criticism. You can always find me on edema--ruh.tumblr.com


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